SEATTLE, Wash. -- Pregnant women often rely on two identities -- a pregnant self and a non-pregnant self -- to help them navigate the profound psychological and physiological effects that pregnancy has on their body image, according to a Penn State Abington researcher.

"Women use various strategies to maintain a positive body image as they go through the pregnancy process," said David J. Hutson, assistant professor of sociology, Penn State Abington. "One of the strategies that came up multiple times during the interviews is that women maintain two distinct senses of self -- a sense of themselves as not pregnant and a sense of themselves as pregnant."

How do you boil water? Eschewing the traditional kettle and flame, MIT engineers have invented a bubble-wrapped, sponge-like device that soaks up natural sunlight and heats water to boiling temperatures, generating steam through its pores.

The design, which the researchers call a "solar vapor generator," requires no expensive mirrors or lenses to concentrate the sunlight, but instead relies on a combination of relatively low-tech materials to capture ambient sunlight and concentrate it as heat. The heat is then directed toward the pores of the sponge, which draw water up and release it as steam.

Scientists and clinicians have long dreamed of helping the injured brain repair itself by creating new neurons, and an innovative NIH-funded study published today in Nature Medicine may bring this goal much closer to reality. A team of researchers has developed a therapeutic technique that dramatically increases the production of nerve cells in mice with stroke-induced brain damage.

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 22, 2016 -- More than a hundred years ago, Ivan Pavlov conducted what would become one of the most famous and influential psychology studies -- he conditioned dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell. Now, scientists are able to see in real time what happens in the brains of live animals during this classic experiment with a new technique. Ultimately, the approach could lead to a greater understanding of how we learn, and develop and break addictions.

Scientists will be presenting their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 22, 2016 -- Car emissions is a high-stakes issue, as last year's Volkswagen scandal demonstrated. Pressure to meet tightening standards led the carmaker to cheat on emissions tests. But wrongdoing aside, how are automakers going to realistically meet future, tougher emissions requirements to reduce their impact on the climate? Researchers report today that a vehicle's cold start -- at least in gasoline-powered cars -- is the best target for future design changes.

SEATTLE -- Ramen noodles are supplanting the once popular cigarettes as a form of currency among state prisoners, but not in response to bans on tobacco products within prison systems, finds a new study.

Instead, study author Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona School of Sociology, found that inmates are trying to figure out ways to better feed themselves as certain prison services are being defunded.

The rise of ramen as currency in prison signals "punitive frugality," indicating that the burden and cost of care is shifting away from prison systems and onto prisoners and their support networks, said Gibson-Light, who will present his research at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Job satisfaction in your late 20s and 30s has a link to overall health in your early 40s, according to a new nationwide study.

While job satisfaction had some impact on physical health, its effect was particularly strong for mental health, researchers found.

Those less than happy with their work early in their careers said they were more depressed and worried and had more trouble sleeping.

And the direction of your job satisfaction - whether it is getting better or worse in your early career - has an influence on your later health, the study showed.

Youth cyberbullying is dramatically more likely to occur between current or former friends and dating partners than between students who were never friends or in a romantic relationship, according to researchers.

"A common concern regarding cyberbullying is that strangers can attack someone, but here we see evidence that there are significant risks associated with close connections," said Diane Felmlee, professor of sociology, Penn State. "The large magnitude of the effects of close relationships on the likelihood of cyberbullying, even after controlling for many other factors, was particularly surprising."

The Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics offers 20 post-doctoral positions in experimental physics to foreigners with a PhD obtained no earlier than November 2008. 
So if have a PhD (in Physics, but I guess other disciplines are also valid as long as your cv conforms), you like Italy, or if you would like to come and work with me at the search and study of the Higgs boson with the CMS experiment (or even if you would like to do something very different, in another town, with another experiment) you might consider applying!

The economical conditions are not extraordinary in an absolute sense, but you would still end up getting a salary more or less like mine, which in Italy sort of allows one to live a decent life.

A new paper by Lawrence S. Mayer, M.B., M.S., Ph.D. and Paul R. McHugh, M.D., both of Johns Hopkins University, uses more than 200 peer-reviewed studies across a variety of scientific fields including epidemiology, genetics, endocrinology, psychiatry, neuroscience, embryology, and pediatrics to try and explain the higher rates of and explanations for mental health problems among the LGBT community and scientifically addresses some of the most frequently heard claims about sexuality and gender. 

They declare that:

· The belief that sexual orientation is an innate, biologically fixed human property — that people are “born that way” — is not supported by scientific evidence.